                                      75 AD
                     THE COMPARISON OF ROMULUS WITH THESEUS
                                  by Plutarch
                           translated by John Dryden

  This is what I have learned of Romulus and Theseus, worthy of
memory. It seems, first of all, that Theseus, out of his own
free-will, without any compulsion, when he might have reigned in
security at Troezen in the enjoyment of no inglorious empire, of his
own motion affected great actions, whereas the other, to escape
present servitude and a punishment that threatened him (according to
Plato's phrase), grew valiant purely out of fear, and dreading the
extremest inflictions, attempted great enterprises out of mere
necessity. Again, his greatest action was only the killing of one King
of Alba; while, as mere by-adventures and preludes, the other can name
Sciron, Sinnis, Procrustes, and Corynetes; by reducing and killing
of whom, he rid Greece of terrible oppressors, before any of them that
were relieved knew who did it; moreover, he might without any
trouble as well have gone to Athens by sea, considering he himself
never was in the least injured by those robbers; whereas Romulus could
not but be in trouble whilst Amulius lived. Add to this, the fact that
Theseus, for no wrong done to himself, but for the sake of others,
fell upon these villains; but Romulus and Remus, as long as they
themselves suffered no ill by the tyrant, permitted him to oppress all
others. And if it be a great thing to have been wounded in battle by
the Sabines, to have killed King Acron, and to have conquered many
enemies, we may oppose to these actions the battle with the Centaurs
and the feats done against the Amazons. But what Theseus adventured,
in offering himself voluntarily with young boys and virgins, as part
of the tribute unto Crete, either to be a prey to a monster or a
victim upon the tomb of Androgeus, or, according to the mildest form
of the story, to live vilely and dishonourably in slavery to insulting
and cruel men; it is not to be expressed what an act of courage,
magnanimity, or justice to the public, or of love for honour and
bravery, that was. So what methinks the philosophers did not ill
define love to be the provision of the gods for the care and
preservation of the young; for the love of Ariadne, above all, seems
to have been the proper work and design of some god in order to
preserve Theseus; and, indeed, we ought not to blame her for loving
him, but rather wonder all men and women were not alike affected
towards him; and if she alone were so, truly I dare pronounce her
worthy of the love of a god, who was herself so great a lover of
virtue and goodness, and the bravest man.
  Both Theseus and Romulus were by nature meant for governors; yet
neither lived up to the true character of a king, but fell off, and
ran, the one into popularity, the other into tyranny, falling both
into the same fault out of different passions. For a ruler's first aim
is to maintain his office, which is done no less by avoiding what is
unfit than by observing what is suitable. Whoever is either too remiss
or too strict is no more a king or a governor, but either a
demagogue or a despot, and so becomes either odious or contemptible to
his subjects. Though certainly the one seems to be the fault of
easiness and good-nature, the other of pride and severity.
  If men's calamities, again, are not to be wholly imputed to fortune,
but refer themselves to differences of character, who will acquit
either Theseus of rash and unreasonable anger against his son, or
Romulus against his brother? Looking at motives, we more easily excuse
the anger which a stronger cause, like a severer blow, provoked.
Romulus, having disagreed with his brother advisedly and
deliberately on public matters, one would think could not on a
sudden have been put into so great a passion; but love and jealousy
and the complaints of his wife, which few men can avoid being moved
by, seduced Theseus to commit that outrage upon his son. And what is
more, Romulus, in his anger, committed an action of unfortunate
consequence; but that of Theseus ended only in words, some evil
speaking, and an old man's curse; the rest of the youth's disasters
seem to have proceeded from fortune; so that, so far, a man would give
his vote on Theseus's part.
  But Romulus has, first of all, one great plea, that his performances
proceeded from very small beginnings; for both the brothers being
thought servants and the sons of swine-herds, before becoming
freemen themselves, gave liberty to almost all the Latins, obtaining
at once all the most honourable titles, as destroyers of their
country's enemies, preservers of their friends and kindred, princes of
the people, founders of cities, not removers, like Theseus, who raised
and compiled only one house out of many, demolishing many cities
bearing the names of ancient kings and heroes. Romulus, indeed, did
the same afterwards, forcing his enemies to deface and ruin their
own dwellings, and to sojourn with their conquerors; but at first, not
by removal, or increase of an existing city, but by foundation of a
new one, he obtained himself lands, a country, a kingdom, wives,
children, and relations. And, in so doing, he killed or destroyed
nobody, but benefited those that wanted houses and homes and were
willing to be of a society and become citizens. Robbers and
malefactors he slew not; but he subdued nations, he overthrew
cities, he triumphed over kings and commanders. As to Remus, it is
doubtful by whose hand he fell; it is generally imputed to others. His
mother he clearly retrieved from death, and placed his grandfather,
who was brought under base and dishonourable vassalage, on the ancient
throne of Aeneas, to whom he did voluntarily many good offices, but
never did him harm even inadvertently. But Theseus, in his
forgetfulness and neglect of the command concerning the flag, can
scarcely, methinks, by any excuses, or before the most indulgent
judges, avoid the imputation of parricide. And, indeed, one of the
Attic writers, perceiving it to be very hard to make an excuse for
this, feigns that Aegeus, at the approach of the ship, running hastily
to the Acropolis to see what news, slipped and fell down, as if he had
no servants, or none would attend him on his way to the shore.
  And, indeed, the faults committed in the rapes of women admit of
no plausible excuse in Theseus. First, because of the often repetition
of the crime; for he stole Ariadne, Antiope, Anaxo the Troezenian,
at last Helen, when he was an old man, and she not marriageable; she a
child, and he at an age past even lawful wedlock. Then, on account
of the cause; for the Troezenian, Lacedaemonian, and Amazonian
virgins, beside that they were not betrothed to him, were not worthier
to raise children by then the Athenian women, derived from
Erechtheus and Cecrops; but it is to be suspected these things were
done out of wantonness and lust. Romulus, when he had taken near eight
hundred women, chose not all, but only Hersilia, as they say, for
himself; the rest he divided among the chief of the city; and
afterwards, by the respect and tenderness and justice shown towards
them, he made it clear that this violence and injury was a commendable
and politic exploit to establish a society; by which he intermixed and
united both nations, and made it the foundation of after friendship
and public stability. And to the reverence and love and constancy he
established in matrimony, time can witness, for in two hundred and
thirty years, neither any husband deserted his wife, nor any wife
her husband; but, as the curious among the Greeks can name the first
case of parricide or matricide, so the Romans all well know that
Spurius Carvilius was the first who put away his wife, accusing her of
barrenness. The immediate results were similar; for upon those
marriages the two princes shared in the dominion, and both nations
fell under the same government. But from the marriages of Theseus
proceeded nothing of friendship or correspondence for the advantage of
commerce, but enmities and wars and the slaughter of citizens, and, at
last, the loss of the city Aphidnae, when only out of the compassion
of the enemy, whom they entreated and caressed like gods, they escaped
suffering what Troy did by Paris. Theseus's mother, however, was not
only in danger, but suffered actually what Hecuba did, deserted and
neglected by her son, unless her captivity be not a fiction, as I
could wish both that and other things were. The circumstances of the
divine intervention, said to have preceded or accompanied their
births, are also in contrast; for Romulus was preserved by the special
favour of the gods; but the oracle given to Aegeus commanding him to
abstain, seems to demonstrate that the birth of Theseus was not
agreeable to the will of the gods.
                               THE END
